Scratch Video

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Scratch Video

Emergency Broadcasting Network (EBN) is the latest video guerrilla group to break on the US scene - marketing a compilation of their work as a "video-only" format released through TVT Records. First seen nationally as one of the off-stage attractions at the first Lollapalooza tour and more recently as an opening attraction for U2's Zoo TV tour, the EBN team has two vehicles for delivering its art to the masses: a Chevrolet Impala, loaded with 27-inch video monitors and a 2,000-watt sound system, and a Chevy Suburban with a rooftop-mounted, rotating satellite dish on a 25-foot boom-arm. The satellite dish acts as a projection screen for a videoprojector on the other end of the arm.

The EBN team of Josh Pearson, Gardner Post, and Ron O'Donnell met at the Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-1980s and began video experiments with ultra-low-budget editing equipment. "We owe a lot to the Tandy Corporation," says Pearson. "Radio Shack has really come through for us." On stage, Pearson takes an active role as a bug-eyed cross between a politician and TV evangelist, pacing in front of the video monitors and projectors while ranting and rapping into a megaphone.

The most compelling clip on Commercial Entertainment Product is Get Down, Get Down - in which Mariah Carey sings one of those notes that only dogs can hear (stuck in a loop), while Harrison Ford (in a cut from Patriot Games) yells "Get down..." again and again. It's the video equivalent of the Public Enemy's Bomb Squad (Hank Shocklee and Terminator X) throwin' down serious aural chaos. The most visible hit from EBN's repertoire is a clip of private citizen, ex-President George Bush chanting the Queen classic We Will Rock You, in perfect time to a boomin' beat.

Noting the influence of '80s phenom Laurie Anderson and contemporaries Tack>>Head, Negativland, and Consolidated, EBN will be putting out another tape this summer, and then going on tour. "We're hoping video sampling will take hold in the same way that audio sampling did in hip- hop and rap," says Pearson. To date unfettered by copyright or intellectual property lawyers, Pearson is optimistic about EBN's future. "We have not received any threats to stop using the material. Whatever happens, we're going to figure out a way to continue doing what we're doing. We may use more public domain material - but we won't stop using figures from popular culture."